Patagonia Part 1

November 22, 2018


Doing a bunch of day hikes in the southern parts of Patagonia, more accurately in Ushuaia, Argentina, and Torres del Paine National Park in Chile.

Even if I enjoyed being on the ship there weren’t many possibilities to walk any mentionable distances and after all that food and not much exercise it was good to walk on land in Ushuaia, Argentina. And this, being part of Patagonia, happens to be a perfect area for hiking.

Already on the first hike I got to experience the infamous Patagonian weather. During the hour it took to get to the vantage point of the Martial glacier I had sun, overcast, rain from above, rain from the sides, a lot more rain, and fairly strong winds. But just when I got to the top it stopped raining and the sun came out. The glacier was not much to see, especially not after Antarctica, but the view was nice and it was good to use my legs again.

View from the Martial glacier hike.

The next hike was one of my favourites, Laguna Esmeralda, a beautiful green glacial water lake. And the hike was made better by the landscape on the way. Green forests, mixed with open boggy plains to make it a little bit more challenging. I almost lost a shoe to the mud. FYI for anyone going: The tours are expensive and you don’t really need them. Just rent a car and do it by yourself. We were five people from the boat sharing a car and it was really cheap.

Trying to not end up in the mud
Laguna Esmeralda.

And while we had the car we also went into Tierra del Fuego National Park. The park itself wasn’t actually that impressive (possibly because of the Antarctica trip setting the bar pretty high?) and the weather was turning bad again, but we had a look around and also stopped by the post office at the end of the world. It was closed…

The post office at the end of the world.

After all this I felt pretty done with Ushuaia and it was time to move on to the next country, Chile. First city, Punta Arenas, with the main attraction being a small island with a huge colony of penguins. Three weeks earlier I would’ve gone for it, but after Antarctica it didn’t feel quite worth it paying US$100 to see penguins for an hour. It also happened to be Sunday so pretty much everything was closed.

Moving on to Puerto Natales, the town closest to the famous Torres del Paine National Park where I wanted to go for a hike or two. This was a pretty paineful (pun intended) thing to organise as the park sells out most camp-site months in advance, and if you do get something it is expensive! And with the unstable weather I opted for staying at my hostel in Puerto Natales and only doing two daytrips into the park. Hostel plus bus transfer was only slightly more expensive than camping. It also gave me the flexibility of waiting out the worst weather in the hostel and decide for bus transfer just the night before, which turned out to be useful. The first day had showers most of the day and not much sun at all. Perfect day to stay in bad and to not be camping. The people coming back that day were not too happy.

When I finally went I had mostly overcast or sunny weather. Not much rain at all. The winds were bad on and off though but that seems to be a constant thing here. And once in the park heading for the most popular and iconic viewpoint it was clear why they need to limit the camp-sites so much. This place is way too popular. Parts of the 6-7 hours hike were packed. If only we had some music it would’ve probably been the first hiking conga line in the world.

One of the emptier parts of the trail, but still plenty of people around.

Once up at the viewpoint it was overcast but eventually, after having lunch, the sky cleared up and we got to see the granite towers of the park in all their beauty.

The towers of Torres del Paine.

The next day and next hike was shorter bit still with impressive views. Again overcast and a little bit of rain, and again just waiting around for half an hour made the sun come out. That seems to be the general trick here. Go to where you want to be and wait around for half an hour or so. Of course you might as well get soaked, but that’s just how Patagonia works.

Some great views from the hiking trails.
Salto Grande, the largest waterfall in the park.

This is also where the road ends in Chile. The only ways to get further north are by boat or by roads through Argentina. I have found out about a few interesting stops in Argentinian Patagonia too so tomorrow I’m taking a bus to El Calafate and get myself another set of stamps in the passport. That will be part 2.


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